CR: Because postage rates are rising, Home Decorator

[RonPurewal]

which choice(s) are you asking about?

• postage costs are addressed only in choice (a), which actually SUPPORTS the idea that the plan will increase profits (since less money will be spent on postage overall).

• production costs are addressed only in choice (e), which says that (for whatever reason) those costs will not change.

• there's no reason to think about these costs in considering B, C, or D.

Hello Ron,
Sorry Ron,I mistakenly considered these costs in option D
Unless given , i should consider them to be same as before

Thanks

this is sometimes an issue—people have a hard time recalling which ideas were in the original passage and which ideas were in earlier answer choices.

if this is CONSISTENTLY an issue, then you may want to consider writing (VERY VERY BRIEF) notes on the passage, just to help demarcate these things.

[Gaurav@GMAT]

Hi Ron,
Although I solved this problem correctly by eliminating other answer choices, now while reviewing this problem I am having very hard time to comprehend meaning of "the number of issues".
What does "the number of issues" mean?
Does it mean "Number of articles"?, which seems more logical but also stated by stimulus that the number of articles is not changed.
Or does it mean "Number of copies sold annually"?, but, I guess, issues and copies are different things.

What I comprehended in my first read is :-
--> First sentence :- Since everything is related to postage rate, HDM will reduce size of magazine(from 200 page to 100 page) by reducing number of issues, apparently articles, to half. (I am considering size here because lesser the weight of package less will be postage charges.)
--> Second sentence :- Then comes articles' number and quality, which will remain same. So, I comprehend HDM will somehow reduce size of each article (from 50 lines to 25 lines), with keeping quality and number of articles unchanged.

If "The number of issues" means "Number of copies sold per year" then ,even after solving problem correctly, I feel I missed very important point. And if it does not mean " Number of copies sold per year", then please tell me what does it mean?

Thanks in advanced,
Gaurav.

[RonPurewal]

'issues' are new releases of a periodical.
if a magazine comes out monthly, then subscribers will receive 12 issues per year. if it's weekly, 52 issues per year. most local newspapers have 365 issues per year.

this is not the same thing as 'copies', which generally refers to the number of identical copies of any one issue.

[RonPurewal]

so, the consequences here are:
• the time between issues will become twice as long (e.g., if you formerly received 12 monthly issues, now you'll get 6 issues, one every two months),
and thus
• each issue will now be twice as long. (this is the only way to achieve the same total amount of content.)

since we are told 'the quality of the articles will not change', the only reasonable interpretation is that the length of the articles will stay the same.

[Gaurav@GMAT]

'issues' are new releases of a periodical.
if a magazine comes out monthly, then subscribers will receive 12 issues per year. if it's weekly, 52 issues per year. most local newspapers have 365 issues per year.

Thanks Ron, Now complete argument is clear to me.

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[JbhB682]

Hi Sage- if you halve the number of magazines and the subscription price IS NOT changed (that is given as a premise)

Wouldn't the revenues be halved ?

I think if we choose A, we are making an ** hopeful assumption ** that when the argument talks about subscription price NOT changing, we are not talking about price/issue but an annual subscription perhaps (like Amazon prime charged which is on an annual basis)

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

This problem depends on a little background knowledge of subscriptions. If I subscribe to a magazine, then I purchase (usually in advance) all issues of that magazine for a certain period (usually a year). Traditionally, the magazine would then mail me the issues as they are released. It sounds like this magazine is going to reduce the number of issues, but keep the subscription price the same. For example, instead of paying $50 for 12 issues over the year, I'd pay $50 for 6 issues over the year. So it's really saying that revenues from subscribers will remain the same. (Presumably each issue of the magazine will be longer, as the number of articles published each year will remain the same).